High-Speed IDEX 3D Printers for Professionals « Fabbaloo

Project R3D has released a new set of professional 3D printers, the Talos line.

The Chicago-based company has been producing professional 3D printing gear for over five years now, and their latest Talos devices are quite impressive.

There’s three models in the new line, the Talos 600, Talos 1200 and Talos 1800. These are all very similar devices, but differ mostly in build volume.

However, there are a number of common features. The most notable of which is the use of an IDEX extrusion system. This dual extrusion approach allows not only the use of soluble support for easy printing of highly complex geometries, but could also offer new print modes as we’ve seen from other IDEX systems. Project R3D explains:

“The Talos series features Independent Dual Extruders (IDEX), enabling simultaneous dual-material printing and faster material swaps.”

I think the idea here is that you could potentially load up two spools of the same material, and when one expires, it is a simple matter to switch to the second spool and continue printing. They don’t say if this is done automatically, but it’s a useful feature if true.

The other key feature of these devices is high speed 3D printing. While we’ve seen plenty of new desktop devices sporting high speeds, they are slow compared to the Talos series, which apparently can print at speeds up to 1000mm/s, near twice the speed of the latest “high speed 3D printers”.

This is likely achieved by the use of robust components and what Project R3D calls “precision engineering”. They say they are able to produce high quality prints at that speed, which is remarkable.

Project R3D is targeting professionals in the military, aerospace, automotive, mold making industries, as well as cosplay enthusiasts. The latter could certainly make good use of the large build volume to produce human-sized items.

There is little information beyond the basic features, so we don’t know much about which materials are possible in the Talos line. However, it’s very likely the devices are able to handle most typical engineering materials given the target markets.

The machines are now released, although the company said there is a “2-4 week wait” due to demand.

Pricing for these machines is as follows:

• Talos 600: US$5999
• Talos 1200: US$7999
• Talos 1800: US$12999

As you can see, these machines are targeted at professionals with suitable budgets. However, the company also said there are discounts of up to US$2000 available for purchases made before the end of October.

Via Project R3D